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Pebble Watch software is now open source

ericmigi.com

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Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#151
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So not 100% open source. Thanks for the info

Above a certain complexity, there is basically no 100% open-source hardware out there. Like none of the Pinephone, Librem, Framework laptops are "open-source" to the bone.

Given how easy is to put and keep hidden malware into devices, governments should demand openness in that field as well. By "putting malware" I don't mean script kiddies in their moms basement but malware/spyware planted by design, which is extremely easy to do if you're the manufacturer, extremely easy to demand/force if you're the government above that manufacturer, and extremely hard to detect if you're a different user in a different country under a government that didn't demand full openness. I know it's impossible as business rules go, but ideally it shouldn't be.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#152
post #69

I'm sure its happened before, but this is the first time i finally get to see some sort of modern hardware in KiCad. Pretty cool to see all 6 layers, paste layers, and adhesive layers as well. I've always wondered how the cake was made and if big projects do/could use KiCad. Seems like a lot more work relative to those Single Layer PCBs on YouTube for things like emulators and custom PCBs. Glad I now know for sure, t…

Paste and adhesive are spat out by KiCad as part of the manufacturing outputs. It works pretty much the same way other EDA packages like altium do - the extra layers are part of the part footprint. If you don’t design your own footprints it’s basically no extra work to generate those.

You almost certainly could do it - obviously with some time investment. Getting multi layer PCBs made is surprisingly affordable now.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#153

A little surprised there has been no mention of the app being Kotlin multiplatform. https://github.com/coredevices/mobileapp I had heard of many smaller apps using Kotlin for their iOS app, but this may be the biggest all in multiplatform app I've seen. It would be awesome if there may eventually be support for writing Pebble apps in Kotlin.

Here's a video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOQMDkCsCSw

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article: >Another important note - some binary blobs and other non-free software components are used today in PebbleOS and the Pebble mobile app (ex: the heart rate sensor on PT2 , Memfault library, and others). Optional non-free web services, like Wispr-flow API speech recognizer, are also used. These non-free software components are not required - you can compile and run Pebble watch software without them.…

If they are not mandatory it's 100%. Otherwise according to your standard, Debian is not 100% free software either.

[dead]

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the Pebble specific parts are. This is an unfortunate state of affairs from hardware manufacturers, they are very late to the open source game, if at all.

From the article: >Another important note - some binary blobs and other non-free software components are used today in PebbleOS and the Pebble mobile app (ex: the heart rate sensor on PT2 , Memfault library, and others). Optional non-free web services, like Wispr-flow API speech recognizer, are also used. These non-free software components are not required - you can compile and run Pebble watch software without them.…

IMHO, it's much closer to 100% than an iWatch or a Garmin.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#156
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So not 100% open source. Thanks for the info

Above a certain complexity, there is basically no 100% open-source hardware out there. Like none of the Pinephone, Librem, Framework laptops are "open-source" to the bone.

So don't say 100%? Not hard.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#157
post #84
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is incredibly fantastic feat of engineering!

Exciting, except it runs Android Wear OS by Google instead of a deGoogled OS, and in the comments it says: "Repairability is admirable but only 3 years of security updates isn't near enough" FTA: "We’re also making sure that our new watches are more repairable than old Pebble watches. The back cover of Pebble Time 2 is screwed in. You can remove the back cover and replace the battery." So the battery of the Pebble Ti…

I had a few Pebbles back in the day and I loved them dearly - still have them laying around so the revival should be great if I can resurrect them.

After Pebble went kaput, I got an Apple Watch through a work reward thing and honestly it’s been solid. I turned off a lot of notifications and mostly use it for things I really want to know, some light exercise tracking, time and weather.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#158
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Above a certain complexity, there is basically no 100% open-source hardware out there. Like none of the Pinephone, Librem, Framework laptops are "open-source" to the bone.

So don't say 100%? Not hard.

Human speech is not mathematical formalism. What would even "open-source" mean in case of hardware, is there a consensus on it to begin with? Is it only 'every firmware is open-source and available', or would you want the whole floorplan of the chip?

So given that the word doesn't really apply to hardware, I believe they used it correctly (100% means the set of things where it makes sense to be used) and are not misleading. In fact I strongly dislike some of the "open-hardware" marketing of some previously mentioned devices, when that is obviously false and misleading.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#159
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please note our CLA explicitly include a clause to require Core Devices to distribute all contributions under an OSI-compatible FOSS license (e.g. GPLv3). So no contributions can be 'stolen'. https://ericmigi.notion.site/Core-Devices-Software-Licensing...

But OSI-compatible FOSS licenses include pushover ones like MIT, so even though you couldn't steal all of the contributions to make a proprietary fork, any other company then could.

The CLA very well allows them to use all of the contributions to make a proprietary fork. The license is irrelevant for that[1].

Calling it "stealing" doesn't help.

[1] I'd usually call it a distraction, a sleigh of hand, smoke and mirrors, but we have to give Eric credit for not burying the CLA.

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